


How Much a Gil Really Cost?

by Thixotrofic



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Economic Anxiety, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26715283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thixotrofic/pseuds/Thixotrofic
Summary: Episodes from the life of J'alih Tia, a migrant worker of Eorzea who works to support himself and his family back in The Peaks. Through his existence, he experiences the nexus between money and all aspects of life.Please be aware, economic anxiety and need is the theme of every chapter and the work as a whole.
Kudos: 2





	How Much a Gil Really Cost?

J'alih lifted up his knife and scooted it over the slightest bit to the left. There were already several shallow impressions on the surface of his food, but he always tried to divide it as evenly as possible, closing one eye to focus on his task. The small loaf of bread, baked full of nuts and dried fruit was his breakfast, and each morning he ate as close to a third as he could. If he divided unevenly, he would always just eat the smaller piece. Save the bigger piece for a treat the next morning.

His mother would always make sure he and each of his siblings got three meals a day, including a nutritious breakfast. A stale third of a loaf of bread smaller than his palm did not amount to that, but J'alih could at least write that he was eating breakfast without lying. It fit his lifestyle. It was convenient, a treat to eat, and gave him the energy to last until lunch, which usually came a few bells past noon.

Oh, and it cost two Gil.

That was essential. J'alih felt the importance of this fact so much more acutely since it was the day of the new moon. His remittance payment was due the following morning, and he was short. He sent more than the two thousand Gil a moon if he had been having good weeks, but he knew he must never send even a single Gil less. 

That would cause his mother to worry about him. His mother’s worry would become his siblings’ worries. And then the worries of their friends, and eventually those of rest of the tribe. They had more than enough troubles without doting over him. So no matter how many times she insisted he take care of himself, there was one law he could never break.

Two thousand gil in hard currency. Counted and sorted and tucked in a canvas bag. Placed under his mattress the night before the new moon, and delivered to the money changers the next morning.

If only it were as easy as it sounded. On an average month, J'alih could collect the money with reasonable ease. However, since he relied on short-term contracts, in reality each month could differ wildly from the last.

Such was the reason for his being behind. The previous moon, he and three others were hired to do some repairs at a mining operation two towns over. The director of the operation was an ambitious young lad, but found himself ruined when his creditors wanted a payment that he couldn’t make because everything was behind schedule. J'alih followed along as the other workers confronted him about their owed compensation, and watched as he voluntarily opened a bag of coins intended for his lenders and even emptied his own pockets to try and make his employees whole.

J'alih almost tried to refuse his share. As hard as he had it trying to make his remittance, the burden of debt was much, much heavier, especially with the laws of Ul’dah that always took the side of creditors. But he had his own promises to keep.

To make up that shortfall, J'alih took extra jobs for a few weeks. He made his payment, but a few days after the new moon, fell ill from overexertion while working in Horizon. It was common practice to hide an illness, but this bout was debilitating, and he didn't want to infect somebody else and keep them from their income. He dismissed himself, splurging twenty Gil on a wagon ride home that would have been a death march by foot in his condition. He tried to sleep it off. With no improvement, he stumbled into a nearby apothecary, who quickly identified his ailment and offered a treatment that cost five hundred Gil. It was a generous price, offered by an herbalist who only barely broke even, and on that transaction even took a loss, but the bill almost made J'alih even more dizzy than the illness itself.

So not only was the first third of the time until the next payment squandered, he had started out in the negative. He still had savings to the tune of seven hundred Gil left that he already drew upon to buy the tonic, but that was set aside for a masonry certification he was looking at.

It was the day of the new moon and his remittance bag was light by four hundred Gil, not touching the savings. He had run the numbers during break periods and as he laid in bed late at night and knew that it would come to this, but somehow hoped that as he approached the deadline things would magically improve. They didn't. As he took the last bite of his breakfast loaf and inhaled the crumbs from his hand, J'alih tore through his mind trying to figure out if there was an extra shift he could do somewhere or where he could have been more thrifty.

Well, he certainly wasn't making any money sitting in his room. The morning twilight had not yet arrived. Maybe he could get some change unloading cargo at the dockyards before reporting to the building site? The first ships to arrive each morning in Vesper Bay usually were in need of an extra pair of hands.


End file.
